Big companies benefit from ObamaCare but not regular people

This month when the defects in President Obama's rhetoric and rollout of his signature domestic-policy initiative became all too apparent, Abeler came to mind. A chiropractor by profession, Abeler knows health care. He's spent more time at the
intersection of government and health than anyone else in the 2014 Senate race. He allowed that the problem with ObamaCare is that it's too much like the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association (MCHA). That was Legislaturespeak, so he translated to
Candidate-ese: "The cost of extending insurance to everybody under ObamaCare is on the backs of the individual and small-group market. That's not fair. All the big people got carved out--big hospitals, big medicine, big companies, big pharma.
They're all good to go. Who isn't? The small businesses are getting pounded, and the people who are hearing that their policies are being canceled." He's sure he could help design something better.

Preventative care; coordinated treatment; low-income clinics

If the issue is ability to craft a "temperate Republican" way forward on health care--and Abeler thinks it will be--he's ready. He thinks his party's fixation on repealing the Affordable Care Act should give way to concrete ideas gleaned from the state
where health care works--not Massachusetts this time, but Minnesota.

"We need to import Minnesota ideas into the health system. It's pricing in a way that looks at the total cost of care. It's medical homes that coordinate treatment.
It's caring for low-income people through community clinics. It's covering preventative care. We take that as normal--but it's not the norm around the country.

"ObamaCare went wrong when it focused entirely on access, and not on cost and quality.
Now we have to address cost and quality, or the access won't be there, either. In Minnesota, we know how to do that. I've been part of making that happen."

Led bipartisan effort for health and human services reform

I am a real problem solver and face hard decisions head-on. I think outside the box, consider all sides of an issue, and then make a reasoned, thoughtful decision. I have a strong track record of delivering results through principled work in a respectful
manner. In 2011, I led a strong, bipartisan effort to reform Minnesota's health and human services programs--the fastest growing area in Minnesota's budget--that resulted in improved programs and dramatic state savings.